"Athletics" by Jim Duderstadt
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235 Chapter 17 Athletics Mention Ann Arbor, and the first image that prob- ably comes to mind is a crisp, brilliant weekend in the fall: walking across campus through the falling leaves to Michigan Stadium; gathering at tailgate parties be- fore the big game; the excitement of walking into that magnificent stadium–“the Big House”–with 110,000 fans thrilling to the Michigan Marching Band as they step onto the field playing “Hail to the Victors.” Intercollegiate athletics provide some of the very special moments in college life: The excitement of a traditional football rivalry such as Michigan vs. Ohio State; or, perhaps, special events such as a Rose Bowl or a NCAA Final Four. Intercollegiate athletics programs at Michigan are not only an important tradition at the Michigan takes the field! University, but they also attract as much public visibil- ity as any other University activity. of high integrity. It also stems from the increasingly They are also a critical part of a university presi- celebrity character of college sports: successful and dent’s portfolio of responsibilities. As any leader of a quotable coaches such as Bo Schembechler, flamboyant NCAA Division I-A institution will tell you, a president players such as the Fab Five, the extraordinary scale of ignores intercollegiate athletics only at great peril--both Michigan athletics, with a football stadium averaging institutional and personal. There is an old saying in 112,000 spectators a game. presidential circles that the university might be viewed However the popularity of Michigan athletics is a as a very fragile academic entity, delicately balanced two-edged sword. While it certainly creates great vis- between the medical center at one end of the campus ibility for the University–after each Rose Bowl or Final and the athletic department at the other. The former can Four appearance, the number of applications for ad- sink it financially–the latter can sink it through public mission surges–it also has a very serious potential for gaffs. instability. Every college athletic department, no mat- Although it is perhaps understandable that a large, ter how committed and vigilant its leadership, never- successful athletic program such as Michigan would theless can depend on an occasional misstep. After all, dominate the local media, it also has more far-reaching most college student-athletes are still in their teens; the visibility. Michigan receives far more ink in the national great popularity of college sports attracts all hangers- media–the New York Times or the Washington Post or on to key programs, some well-intentioned, some not; even the Wall Street Journal–for its activities on the field there is intense pressure from the sports media; and the that it ever did for its classroom or laboratory contribu- NCAA rulebook is larger and more complex than the tions. This media exposure is due, in part, to the Uni- United States Tax Code. versity’s long tradition of successful athletics programs Perhaps far more serious is the extraordinary emo- 236 tional attachment that ordinarily rational people can Michigan athletics make enjoyable reading, my pur- develop toward college sports–at least toward suc- pose is better served by beginning somewhat later, in cessful programs. We have all seen how fans behave at the mid-1960s, when Michigan athletics, and college sporting events–not simply cheering the favored team sports more generally, began their mad dash toward on, but taunting the opposition, berating officials, and the cliff of commercialization. During today’s heady even occasionally booing their own players and coach- times of national championships and lucrative televi- es. And for many, this emotional involvement extends sion and licensing contracts, Michigan fans sometimes far beyond simply the moment of athletic competition. forget that the University’s athletics programs have not After a series of disappointing seasons, boosters and always been so dominant. During the 1960s, the Michi- alumni are not only likely to call for the firing of the gan football program had fallen on hard times, with coach, but for the athletic director and the president as typical stadium attendance averaging 60,000 to 70,000 well. Why not get rid of the whole @#$%& bunch?! And per game (about two-thirds the capacity of Michigan their one-dimensional view of the university through Stadium). Michigan State University, just up the road, their sports binoculars is not only conveyed to other drew most of the attention with its powerful football fans, but to legislators and regents as well--folks who teams—actually, this was part of its president’s strategy have the power and sometimes the inclination to do re- to transform Michigan Agricultural College into a ma- ally serious damage! jor university. Furthermore, student interest on activist Corner any university president in a candid mo- campuses such as Michigan’s had shifted during the ment, and he or she will admit that many of the prob- 1960s from college athletics to political activism, with lems they have with the various internal and external great causes such as racial discrimination and an un- constituencies of the university stem from athletics. popular war in Vietnam to protest. Whether it is an appropriate concern about program in- There were, nevertheless, a few bright spots in Mich- tegrity, or a booster-driven pressure for team success, or igan’s athletic fortunes. Michigan’s basketball team had media pressure, or over-involvement by trustees, presi- enjoyed considerable success in the mid-1960s, with dents are frequently placed in harm’s way by athletics. Cazzie Russell leading the team to the NCAA cham- As a result, whether they like it or not, most presidents pionship game, only to lose to an upstart UCLA team learn quickly that they must become both knowledge- (which would then dominate the sport for the next de- able and actively involved in their athletics programs. cade). Largely as a consequence of this success, the Uni- As Peter Flawn, former president of the University of versity used student-fee-financed bonds to build a new Texas, put it in his wonderful “how-to” book on univer- basketball arena, Crisler Center, named after former sity leadership, “If you don’t like or understand college football coach and athletic director Fritz Crisler. Actual- football, learn how to fake it”. ly, this facility was also known to many as simply “the house that Cazzie built.” 1960s Some of Michigan’s other athletics programs were also successful. The ice hockey team won the national Far more histories have been written about Michi- championship in 1964. Swimming began what was to gan athletics than have been written about the Univer- become a three-decade long domination of the Big Ten sity itself. The names of Michigan’s sports heroes—Yost, Conference. There were considerable accomplishments Crisler, Harmon—are better known than any members in other sports such as wrestling, track, and gymnas- of Michigan’s distinguished faculty or its presidents. tics. But, at Michigan, football was king, and when the Tellingly, most of these histories have been written football fortunes were down, students and fans were by sportswriters, former athletic directors, coaches, or apathetic about Michigan athletics. fans. Hence it seems both appropriate and amusing to This began to change in the late 1960s. Although provide a brief historical corrective from the perspec- many attribute Michigan’s turnaround to a new ath- tive of a long time faculty member (JD). letic director, Don Canham, reputed to be the shrewd Although the legends of the good old days of marketing genius who transformed Michigan athletics 237 Don Canham, defining the AD Czar Coach Bo Schembechler into a commercial juggernaut, most of us on the fac- market Michigan football in sophisticated ways. For ulty saw the situation somewhat different. Following instance, he arranged for planes to pull banners ad- the advice of the former football coach Bump Elliot, vertising Michigan football over Detroit Tiger Stadium Canham recruited a talented young football coach, Bo during the 1968 World Series. He launched the practice Schembechler, who revitalized the Michigan program of mass-mailed advertising and catalogs of souvenir in his first year, beating Ohio State and going to the items. Michigan athletics began to function more as a Rose Bowl. The sports scene in southeastern Michi- business, complete with marketing, advertising, and gan strongly supports winners, and within a couple of promotion, along with the development of new com- years, Michigan Stadium began to sell out on a regular mercial activities. To many, Canham became the stereo- basis. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist—or a Michigan type of the athletic director CEO-czar who would drive faculty member, for that matter—to realize that if one college sports into a commercial entertainment indus- can regularly fill the largest football stadium in the try. country with paying customers, prosperity and success soon follow. And indeed it did, since year after year 1970s-1980s Michigan fielded nationally ranked football teams. The annual matchup between Michigan and Ohio During the 1970s and 1980s, for all intents and pur- State, often personified as a battle between Bo Schem- poses, Michigan athletics was a one-sport program. bechler and Woody Hayes, soon grew to mythical pro- Football ruled the roost, and other sports were clearly portions. Fans experienced some initial frustration be- secondary priorities. Taking a more objective look at cause of a Big Ten Conference rule, which allowed only this era, one cannot help but note that while several of the conference champion to compete in a bowl game, the men’s programs competed effectively within the Big the Rose Bowl. However the quality of the Michigan Ten Conference, none were regarded as national lead- and Ohio State teams during the early 1970s soon ers.